Congrats and solidarity to our brothers and sisters at the newly established New School Occupation! In the wake of the raid on Liberty Square, they established a 24/7 occupation in the student study center here in NYC. Statement below and more information here.

November 17, 2011

Two days ago the NYPD, under the orders of a billionaire mayor who does not represent us, raided Occupy Wall Street with riot gear and batons. Today we occupy. Everywhere. On this historic day of global action, the students of New York City public and private universities and colleges, in solidarity with the 99%, Occupy Wall Street, labor, and all those dispossessed by our economic and political system, will expand the struggle and occupy a university space.

Today, the university is a supreme symbol of social and economic inequality. Skyrocketing tuition costs at public and private institutions deny us access to higher education and saddle us with crushing debt. We will reclaim this elite space and make it open to all. We will foster dialogue and build solidarity between students, workers, and others excluded or marginalized by economic and social inequalities. We will build community through the commonality of occupation. We will offer free education – this is systematically forbidden. We join a long tradition of student activism and struggle. We the indebted and the future unemployed and underemployed stand committed to this movement for our collective lives. We invite all to join us in this open occupation.

This wonderful movement has started the beginning of the end of this unjust non-sustainable society we have today. This movement is the beginning of something huge that will lead to revolutionary changes. Mark my words.

Given the history of the New School (http://www.newschool.edu/nssr/subpage.aspx?id=9064) this is highly appropriate and welcome. I have an MA in Political Economy from the Graduate Faculty of the New School. When I studied there, people from all over the world came there to study economics from a leftist, integrated social perspective instead of the mathematical form holding court at other schools. Great to see today's students following the example of our school's founders!

I just came across this. Great to see that we are finding more places to occupy. We need to find more, a lot more.

Push for a measure to take back our land, not just for protestors - but for everyone. If we want to hold neighborhood meetings in public parks, then by all means we should be allowed. If corporations don't like our politics, and it is a private park owned by a corporation, then either they abide by a just and free world or else we occupy them.

We are losing so much of our public space to corporations. I don't care at this point if corporations own some, but we are losing more and more. We need to own our own land and do with it as we see fit.

I am in the 99% as per the definition of OWS - they do not represent my opinions at all. This is just another case of a small fraction claiming to represent a larger majority. I support the rights of OWS to protest for what they feel - but oppose the way that others individuals rights are disregarded in the expression of the discontent.

Two wrongs don't make a right - if you protect the freedoms and rights of others you are protecting your own.

When President Barack Obama is criticized for his lack of leadership in response to the Occupy demonstrations throughout the country, it is likely because the Democratic Party is afraid. It is afraid of ruffling the feathers of local governments and powerful leaders who could make or break his re-election. Above and beyond this, it is astounding how poorly people in this country are behaving toward the first family, for example, the NASCAR crowd having the nerve to "boo" the First Lady when she and Jill Biden arrive at the races. The depravity has become so overt, the ignorance and intolerance to profound, that it is going to take everything we have to set this country on a path that is sustainable, just and Democratic. I keep seeing one person proposing the Saint-Lague method of proportional representation and it is interesting. Besides this, what is absolutely clear is how local economies and varied occupational opportunities are key. Making people servants to the finance industry lacks integrity on many levels.

occupying the study center accomplishes nothing but the displacement of students who actually rely on that space for studying. students actually had to fight to get that space originally; now just the name OWS seems to suddenly give one group of students license to do basically whatever they want, including preventing anyone else from using the space for its intended purpose. this hardly looks like civil disobedience to me. i considered myself a member of OWS movement before this occupation. now i seriously question this because of the level of entitlement and lack of care displayed by the occupying group. THEY ARE NOT STANDING UP FOR STUDENTS! THEY ARE ONLY STANDING UP FOR THEMSELVES!

You guys better watch yourselves. You're growing and expanding in a similar fashion to the major corporations you protest. Occupy, occupy, occupy sounds a lot like the chant of corporations: Acquire, acquire, acquire. Please note that many university students worked their asses off to get a good education.

Consider the principles of Gandhi: your goal is rational discourse with your opponents (for lack of a better word). You should accept that you do not know all the answers, and that your answers are not absolute truths. You should be willing to work with your opponents to search for a solution. Instead you are forcing yourselves upon others in the same fashion that you accuse corporations and the government of.

If you were peaceful and nonviolent in your civil disobedience you would love and wish for a calm mind for law enforcement. It is only through this calm mind that they can introspect and find that what they are doing is wrong and violent. Instead you cloud their minds with emotions of shame, anger, and frustration by calling them "pigs" and screaming "shame, shame, shame".

Finally, ask yourselves: What is more powerful, the suffering love of a silent, peaceful protest, or the loud drums and aggression of your own?

a bunch of politically correct neo nazi's pretty much. Let's do everything our way. There are a lot of people who do not agree with this movement and yes that are democrat as well. I agree with the above statement.

Stop Protesting! Stop Protesting! Stop Protesting! START PRAYING! In Jesus Name AMEN!!! Lord God I command you to stop the protesting around the state, nation and world, because they RAN BY UN-organized, uninformed PEOPLE, and have no order and are protesting the 1% of billionaires who provide the 99% food clothing and shelter for trillions of families world wide. For they do not know that if they got their wish to get ride of the 1% that the 99% would no longer have jobs, and their families would starve. In order for a true democracy to work you need the social class system of rich, middle class, and poor. Anything else would be socialism. Lord please let them read this post and become enlightened that there movement is useless, and pointless, because if they got their demands, the nation would be in a worse place than it is now. Lord let them know that this world is not going to last forever, and instead of occupying wall street,and several other parts of your green earth, they should be occupying a bible teaching churches and learning about giving their life to you, so they wont perish, in Jesus name I pray Amen.

Get off your religious soapbox, please. Praying doesn't do shit for anyone. Praying is begging, and if the Lord is everywhere and can see everything, why in the hell would anyone need to pray? Religious rituals are asinine and illogical.

The evil of the world is about to go down the drain Let there be love and justice on earth and let the world be governed by goodness, let the meek inherit the earth because they will not destroy it, let there be worldwide brotherhood and cooperation.The world has spoken and it will not stop until the normal state of happiness prevail all corners of the globe and let noone do without. No human left behind as a worldwide policy

Some good ideas posted here. Buy local and from small businesses. Let the poor exploited and underpaid minimum wage employees in the big box stores have a slow day. Give your money to little shops and please try to buy American. Workers in China are exploited, but the American firms who buy from China are making lots of profit.
Now a word about tuition. I graduated from a California state university in 1969, and earned a graduate degree in 1972. I saw the writing on the wall even then when college was still affordable. Higher education has become a BIG business and sadly has very little to do with education. Many of these young people have not gotten a fair deal. The system is so broken. Healthcare is the same. Health and education should be a right and even under capitalism....they should be affordable and available to all. I support OWS because I think we can change.

Long overdue. I've wanted to see a push for an alternative education system for years. Too much connection between big-money corporations and big-money colleges and universities. You can't even get an internship at a corporation without the backing of some university. That's quite restrictive, in my opinion.

Courage in love and war. Read how the Occupy London group fell into the chaos, internal squabbling and fearful retreat that was ultimately the reason they were the first to be swept away and silenced in Canada.

It is time to go for the sacred cow of Black Friday.
DISRUPT the middle class consumers' ritual.
Use this as your starting point:
Enjoy Black Friday
You SCRAMBLE for MINOR DEALS
While CRIMINAL BANKERS STEAL
BILLIONS of YOUR TAX DOLLARS
& SPEND LOOT on MEGA-YACHTS.

I think you've got a good idea there, disrupt 'Black Friday'- but not on the backs of the people who are already being exploited. Don't mess with folks shopping, just try to educate them and offer alternatives to patterns that perpetuate their oppression- like buying local. We are the 99%, and we must stand together or we'll fall alone.

I wanted to let you know about a new petition I created on We the People, a
new feature on WhiteHouse.gov, and ask for your support. Will you add your
name to mine? If this petition gets 25,000 signatures by December 19, 2011,
the White House will review it and respond!

We the People allows anyone to create and sign petitions asking the Obama
Administration to take action on a range of issues. If a petition gets
enough support, the Obama Administration will issue an official response.

Throw out all elected officials.
We the people deserve a VOTE OF NO CONFIDENCE in this government and all
elected officials immediately be thrown out of office. Furthermore, the
election system be changed to a lottery system, for congress and the senate,
thus ending the corruption inherent in an election system.

This petition needs 150 signatures to be readable to all americans on the web site. It will let the white house know that WE THE PEOPLE are done with this corrupt government.

True, it might be ridiculous. The fact that coporations in the U.S. are considered and have the rights of any person is ridiculous. Yet the supreme court ruled that way over 100 years ago and now we have one of the most corrupt governments in the world because of it. If you have a different idea for election reform, I'm sure people would like to hear it.

oooh are you upset that you got kicked out of the parks that you were INVITED to and abused?? Any landlord or court would kick you out as well. Clean up your act OWS. Stop attacking the 99 percent you are supposed to be for.

Let's see disrupting everyday workers who are the 99 percent, Trying to close down banks whom most of them, bank tellers are the 99 percent, Closing down shipping ports, also disrupting our economy. Wow you guys are kind of lost aren't ya?? Maybe pay off your school debts? That's why you're going to school to get a job so you can do that. Jeez.

This is bull shit
the 99%?
well lets see, the 99% of the students at the new school can now NOT use that space, and the 100% of those who are employed in offices in that building can not work and get paid
Talk about screwing over the 99%
think before you act.
this has all officially gotten out of hand